It is more than forty years now since
paddle steamers regularly wintered at Newhaven on the Sussex Coast. Here we have
the Portsmouth paddlers Ryde and Sandown alongside, resplendent in
the bright new Sealink colours which were introduced in 1965. In the background is the Dover based car ferry Maid of
Kent.

Newhaven harbour was owned by the
railway in those days so it was a cost effective place to lay up their own ships and
maintain them using their extensive workshop facilities. They also had a
grid on which their paddlers, like the Lymington based Freshwater (pictured
above), could sit for underwater maintenance and painting. This needed
sweeping clear of mud and weed from time to time and this was done by a man walking
out along the wooden structure with a brush as the tide went
down.

Note that in keeping with the more robust Zeitgeist of that time,
he
is
not wearing a life-jacket, nor a body harness, nor even that ubiquitous bit of
kit deemed so essential today in all circumstances: a hard hat.

However, his employer's have not left
him completely bereft of safety equipment. He has been issued with a
pair of thigh-length waders and, most importantly of all, perched jauntily upon
his head, is that earlier version of the hard hat: a peaked
cap.

Ryde sitting on the grid, now
completely exposed at a lower state of the tide.

As the grid flooded twice a day when the
tide came in and went out, it was not suitable for major hull work so for that the
paddlers went off to a Southampton dry-dock. Note the Sandown's bow
rudder which was a feature of all the Portsmouth paddle steamers. This enabled
them to steam all the way out of Portsmouth Harbour astern, if necessary, before
turning in the more open waters off Southsea thereby avoiding the expense and
inconvenience of having to use a tug to turn in the harbour.

Of course it was not only the railway
paddlers which used Newhaven. After P & A Cambell took over the Sussex sailings
from Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings in the 1890s they used it as their
overnight base. Their last paddler on the station was the Glen Gower
(pictured above) which also has the distinction of being the very last paddle
steamer in the UK to have had a proper international passenger certificate. She
continued to sail across the Channel to Boulogne right up to 1956.

Freshwater returned to Newhaven
in 1960 disguised as the Sussex Queen under the ownership of Herbert
Jennings (pictured above on her deck at Newhaven) and tried very unsuccessfully
to revive Sussex Coast paddle steamer sailings. She did not return in 1961.

In 1963 the Consul (pictured
above at Newhaven) had a go on the Sussex Coast but she was late in arriving,
was much troubled by crew problems and, with poor weather in August adding to
her woes, she lost a lot of money and did not return.

Although the Waverley has made
occasional calls at Newhaven over the years, it fell to the Ryde to be
the last paddle steamer to use the port regularly. She was withdrawn in 1969.

And isn't this a lovely picture of her
very traditional wheelhouse? Note in the background, on the right behind but
within easy reach of the mate, the chart table has found a new use as the
home for a pile of assorted newspapers, a transistor radio, camera and half a pint of beer!